Joint Conference of the European Frequency and Time Forum and IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (EFTF/IFCS)
Interleaved Atom Interferometry for High Sensitivity Inertial Measurements
Denis Savoie, Matteo Altorio, Bess Fang, Leonid A. Sidorenkov, Rémi Geiger, Arnaud Landragin
Abstract
We report on interleaved operation of a cold-atom inertial sensor, where three atomic clouds are simultaneously probed in an atom interferometer featuring 4 Hz sampling rate and interrogation time of 801 ms. Interleaving improves the inertial sensitivity by efficiently averaging vibration noise and allows us to perform dynamic rotation measurements in a so far unexplored range. We demonstrate sensitivity of 30 nrad.s-1·Hz-1/2and reach the long-term stability of 3·10-10rads-1, which competes with the best stability levels obtained with fiber-optic gyroscopes. Our work validated interleaving as a key concept for future atom-interferometry sensors probing time-varying signals, as in on-board navigation and gravity gradiometry, searches for dark matter, or gravitational wave detection.